Zhao Tongpan twitched his lips and smiled, "The Imperial Envoy and his servants have taken up residence at the post station, intending to conduct a secret investigation."
"Every day, the officials are sent to work alongside the common people. While earning food, they secretly inquire about the situation in Qianhuang City."
He wanted to laugh when he thought of those officials wearing shiny official uniforms and blending in with the people to work and pull mud.
How can this be called a secret investigation? It's just short of sticking the word "official" on your forehead.
"Ah!?" Prefect Liu looked at Zhao Tongpan in surprise, "The prince didn't care about them?"
"Just let Qu Yutang's people wander around Qianhuang City?"
"Yes." Zhao Tongpan smiled. "Just pretend you don't know the imperial envoy is gone and let them do whatever they want."
"But I think those officials are exhausted. They haul mud every day. They look exhausted, and their hands are covered with blisters."
"Those officers are quite capable of enduring hardships."
When he was leaving Qianhuang City with the water transport team, he was shocked to see the officials shoveling soil with a laugh by the ditch outside the city.
Prefect Liu curled his lips in confusion, "Is Qu Yutang crazy?"
Not only did he not understand what Shen Yong meant, he also did not understand what Qu Yutang meant.
Is this just eating without suffering?
It's funny that so many people entered Qianhuang City and conducted a secret investigation.
"Who knows?" Zhao Tongpan smiled and shook his head. "It is said that Qu Yutang had nothing to eat or drink at the post station, so he had no choice but to resort to this last resort."
When Magistrate Liu heard this, he was even more speechless.
Forget it, this matter is not his business. As long as the imperial envoy does not leave Qianhuang City, it will be fine.
If we leave one day later, the capital will get the news one day later, and Bailong City will be able to live one more day with Qianhuang City.
As he was speaking, the yamen runner who had gone out to investigate the news came back in a hurry.
"Your Excellency, the master and servant are indeed merchants from the capital. They are the eldest daughter and her wet nurse of the Ran family."
"The Ran family!?" Prefect Liu frowned in confusion and turned to look at Zhao Tongpan. "Are you familiar with them?"
Judge Zhao shook his head. "I haven't heard of them. They're probably small merchants. The big merchants in the capital are all somewhat related to the royal family. I've never heard of anyone with the surname Ran."
Magistrate Liu nodded and said, "Let them go."
.......
Early the next morning...
"Sir, the ten servants that the master and servant mentioned have entered the city." The bailiff said with his hands clasped together.
Governor Liu put down his chopsticks and wiped his mouth.
"Take it to the lobby."
He hadn't been to court for a long time and was a little uncomfortable.
He used to be overwhelmed by the large number of cases, but since the drought began, there have been fewer cases.
Every household has nothing to eat or drink, so who has the energy to commit a crime?
Even if you rob gold and silver, you can’t buy water, and it’s a waste of effort.
Magistrate Liu put on his official robe and walked into the hall with square steps.
"Bang!"
Magistrate Liu sat down and slammed the gavel.
Ten skinny slaves were so frightened that they knelt and shouted hoarsely,
"Greetings to the prefect....the great...the great master!!"
The slaves were terrified and couldn't understand why they were caught as soon as they entered the city.
Seeing that the gates of Bailong City were closed, they thought they couldn't get in.
As a result, the gatekeeper asked them a few questions and let them in.
Before they could have fun, they were caught here by the yamen runners.
Magistrate Liu glared at the servants with a sullen face.
"Do you admit your guilt?"
The servants stared at Magistrate Liu in astonishment, "????"
One of the triangular-eyed servants rolled his eyes, kowtowed and shouted,
"Master Prefect, we servants really know what crime we have committed."
"Yes, yes..." The other servants echoed.
Prefect Liu sneered, "Do you know Miss Ran from the Ran family?"
Triangle Eyes was stunned for a moment, then grunted, "I recognize...I recognize him. It's the master of our family."
Prefect Liu looked at Triangle Eyes.
"The ten of you conspired to murder the master, is that true?"
The pupils of the triangular eyes suddenly expanded, and he panicked and cried out for justice.
"It's unjust, Master Prefect. How dare we, your servants, do such a thing as to kill our master?"
"All along the way, we servants have risked our lives to protect the young lady. How could we dare to kill our master?"
As he spoke, Triangle Eyes rolled up his sleeves and said, "Master Prefect, please look at the wounds on my arms. They were all caused by those refugees when I was trying to protect the young lady."
"There were sixty or seventy servants following the young lady, and we are the only ones left."
"If it weren't for the servants who risked their lives to protect the young lady, there would be no way the young lady could have reached White Dragon City safely."
The other guilty servants came to their senses instantly after hearing what Triangle Eyes said, and started to cry out for justice.
"It's truly unfair, Your Excellency the Prefect. How dare we, your servants, have such thoughts?"
"It's unfair. I risked my life to protect the young lady. Even if I didn't do anything meritorious, I still worked hard. How could the young lady Ze treat me so unfairly..."
"Please, sir, please investigate..."
“…”
The slaves cried out with hoarse voices, looking so pitiful.
"Bang!" The noise made Magistrate Liu's head hurt, and he picked up the gavel and banged it again.
The noisy servants panicked and instantly shut up.
Magistrate Liu swept his eyes over the faces of the servants one by one.
"So, your eldest lady has wronged you, hasn't she?"
"If you didn't have such intentions, why would your eldest lady come to sue you?"
Looking at the slaves' obviously guilty and frightened faces, he could conclude that these people did have the intention of killing their master.
You can tell from their appearance that they suffered a lot on the road.
Triangle Eyes immediately kowtowed and replied,
"Master Prefect, this is unjust. We servants truly have no intention of killing you."
"But on the way, the servants hadn't eaten or drunk anything for three or four days. They were about to collapse, so they thought of killing the horses."
"The servants wanted to do this for the young lady. If the horses are killed, the young lady won't have to starve."
"Maybe... maybe the young lady misheard, so..."
After Triangle Eyes finished speaking, he nudged the person next to him with his elbow.
The man immediately reacted and echoed,
"Yes, the servants saw that the young lady was about to die of thirst, so they decided to kill the horse and drain its blood for her to drink."
"Maybe the young lady was hungry and confused at the time, and she misheard, so she wrongly accused the servants..."
The other servants followed suit, insisting that it was the horses they wanted to kill.
Prefect Liu sneered,
“Bring Ran Xiangyu and his servant!”
After a while, Ran Xiangyu walked into the hall with Aunt Zhang in a panic.
"This humble girl pays homage to the prefect!"
"Your servant greets the prefect!"
Magistrate Liu looked at Aunt Zhang.
"Tell me again what you heard that night."
"Yes!" Nanny Zhang responded, staring at the resentful eyes of Triangle Eyes and others, and she repeated the conversation between them that night in full.
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